U2 can be cool...just ask that guy...

Driving to work the other day, I hear the DJ say that at a U2 concert in Dallas, a fan was holding up a sign that said "ANGEL OF HARLEM" along with the chords and the line "In case you forgot!". As anyone who reads Steve's blog would know, the big pet peeve has been the playing of Vertigo to open and close shows, which I must agree is retarted given the vast array of great songs they could do instead of doing their i-Pod add twice (maybe Apple pays them extra for it Johns?). Well U2 hadn't played Angel of Harlem all tour, and Bono apparently stops the show, asks the kid in the audience if he knows how to play it, then proceeds to bring him up on stage, where he's handed a guitar and plays Angel of Harlem along with the band. At the end, Bono even traded sunglasses with him: Red tinted Armanis for a pair of drugstore rack cheapies...I'd take that deal.

Hearing that on the radio just staggered me...for the world's biggest band (and no sorry the Rolling Stones are NOT that anymore) to do that just amazed me. Its common enough to see them pull friends out on stage to sing with them (Eddie Vedder for instance), but in today's super-security lockdown world where paranoia runs deep, an act like that, however insignificant to some, to me shows that maybe they aren't as removed from reality as I once thought. I'll admit I own all their albums and tried desperately to get tix, but that doesn't mean that I don't have criticisms of them. However, something like this makes Bono the cocky seem more like the Bono of old who had the passion, not the ego. [and thats not to discount his work for many great causes, b/c hell the world needs things like that]

In a cynical world, something as tiny as that gives me some measure of hope.

But then again, maybe Bono's just a huge PR genius and knew that by bringing that 19yr old dude up on stage, he'd get people like me to sing his praises, so he's in fact even more devious than he was before? or maybe I'm just out thinking myself....

Sign O' the times? or Boy am I getting old?

This past Monday was Halloween, and for the 25th straight year, I dressed up as something, regardless of the fact I got no Candy in exchange for it.
The inspiration for my costume this year came to me while at work and looking at a new Down Vest we had just got in which was a dark orange colour, very similar to a red.
I tried it on, and asked my co-worker Tyler "what does this remind you of?" and without hesitation, he confirmed that I was not the only one who thought so "Marty McFly" he proclaimed, and then we discussed what a cool halloween costume that would make. As he pointed out however, the likelyhood of people knowing who I was (or for that matter that I was even dressed up) was remote.

Well, come Monday I arrived at work, in jeans, running shoes, a short sleeve plaid shirt, jean jacket, the orange vest, a very old walkman with 80s style headphones, and a borrowed skateboard. The friends at work all thought it was pretty cool, but my boss, whos late 30s early 40s is like "who're you?" I say "here's a hint, big movie in the 80s, trilogy not involving luke skywalker". Nothing. So I told him. "Okay..." he says, shaking his head as he walks off.

Not one hour later, still at work still in said outfit, he comes up to me and asks if I 'm working, yes of course I am, then he asks why I'm not dressed up, which gets quite a laugh out of the other people at work when I RE-explain who I am and that I told him this not one hour ago, to which he replies "oh, well I just thought those were your regular clothes and you were just visiting".

I ask you, people of my generation, is Marty McFly not a cultural icon of the 1980s? Was Back to the Future not one of the coolest movies (and trilogies) of that decade? How could someone NOT get it? Am I that far off? Give me some feedback here, because I worry that only a few people got my costume; reassure me that I'm not totally off base here, and if I am, let me know.

Oh, and I DID end up getting candy after all.

That made my day.

The other day, while at Trailhead, where I work, it was a usual quiet weekday in downtown Kingston in late October, when one of the guys I work with came up to the cash, where most of us were standing around, and proclaimed: "I finally figured out who you remind me of Gav".
So I said ok who? and he says "John Cusack in High Fidelity".
Well needless to say, I'm not sure if that was intended as a compliment or an insult, more likely than not just an observation, but it made my day.
For an audiophile such as myself, thats quite a compliment, and yes I do also realise that makes me also a very surly cranky person who obsesses about things, but this is also true.
Unfortunately I dont' yet own my own record store, nor do I have Jack Black as my employee, but were I to do so, then Steve Johns, you would be first on the list for employee of the month.

I think that assessment also relates to an earlier entry about how Nick Hornby's writing seemed to have hit the nail on the head for me and seems right on with how my brain works many times. This just seems to have reinforced it, and well thats ok with me.

PS. I apologize for the rather masturbatory self-absorption of this entry, but I figured someone might appreciate it, and if not then I can come back and look at it many years down the road.